Forbes: 4 Tips For Building Better Mobile Marketing Campaigns

From Forbes:

4 Tips For Building Better Mobile Marketing Campaigns

After publishing the first Forbes blog on mobile marketing mistakes, I’ve received numerous suggestions on how to build successful campaigns. I recently had the opportunity to conduct an interview on this topic with Mobeen Khan, Executive Director of Mobility Solutions Marketing for AT&T.

Mr. Khan stated that mobile marketing campaigns are frequently an afterthought instead of an integral part of the overall marketing strategy. Marketers must consider this strategy and its compatibility with their campaign goals and not just focus on the technical aspects and techniques, such as SMS campaigns or bar codes. Mr. Khan provided the following four tips for marketing executives to consider.

1. Businesses must understand where and how a person will consume the message. The time, attention span, and capabilities of the consumer will differ if the person is at home or in the office. The experience a brand creates via its marketing should be made sensitive to how the message will be consumed. For example, will a bar code be placed in a magazine or on a placard in a store? Mr. Khan said, “The mobile experience is different than the browser experience and many companies don’t factor in mobile user experience attributes. What works on the web won’t translate to mobile devices. This difference of context can be exploited, and those that do it well harness the real power of mobile.”

My point of view (POV): While there are debates on the best way to mobile-enable a Web site, it’s important to have a mobile-optimized Web site. Consumers are facing mobile application fatigue, using on average approximately eleven of the seventy apps that they have on their phones. This means that a business’s app experience shouldn’t be the only mobile strategy. If a marketing campaign sends people to the web, it can’t be the same cluttered PC-based experience.

2. Companies should build defined analytics into mobile marketing efforts. As part of the campaign planning process, a company should define what types of data it is able to collect and what type of insights it can learn from this data. For example, the number of impressions, or views of a particular advertisement, isn’t a useful metric when considered on its own. What are the demographics of those engaging with the ads or the content? Are they male or female? Are they loyalty cardholders? From which magazine did the consumer scan the QR code? Where did they scan the code? What time of day did it take place? As can be seen, there is a wide array of information for businesses to consider when creating marketing strategies to reach out to potential consumers.

My POV: We now have big data tools that can store volumes of data and process it in near real-time. Mobile presents businesses with the opportunity to link a person to an action and gather a large amount of information related to that person which then allows for customizable services. At the very minimum, it offers the opportunity to understand what types of campaigns resonate with users. If you aren’t collecting more than impressions data, you’ve truly lost an opportunity to build an insightful and useful marketing strategy.

3. Retailers should build in-store opportunities for mobile marketing. For bricks-and-mortar retailers, it is very important to consider communicating with customers while they are in the store. Users could check-in at the store and then receive coupons on their phones via an application or SMS. The retailer could provide additional information about its products using QR codes, or, if the retailer can determine what a customer is shopping for, complimentary items can be offered through cross-merchandising suggestions based upon a specific customer’s purchases. For example, if a woman scans the bar code on a dress, the mobile app could suggest shoes to compliment the outfit. The experience may even be extended to checkout and shipping direct from the warehouse, which many of us will appreciate while shopping during the holiday season. Not too many people enjoy lugging bags through a sea of holiday mall-goers for hours on end.

My POV: Mobile drives the cross-channel experience and draws traffic to stores. If done well and utilized to its fullest potential, it can drive sales within the store. If done poorly, it drives business for online retailers.

4. Don’t think of mobile marketing as mobile advertising. To the earlier point on communicating with the customer or prospect, Mr. Khan said, “Mobile advertising and mobile marketing isn’t the same thing. Mobile marketing is an immersive experience.” Mobile marketing is about the overall engagement with the customer.

Trending Tickers

i

Trending Tickers features significant U.S. stocks showing the most dramatic increase in user interest in Yahoo Finance in the previous hour over historic norms. The list is limited to those equities which trade at least 100,000 shares on an average day and have a market cap of more than $300 million.

Yahoo! Finance Worldwide

Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE, and NYSEAmex when available. See also delay times for other exchanges. Quotes and other information supplied by independent providers identified on the Yahoo! Finance partner page. Quotes are updated automatically, but will be turned off after 25 minutes of inactivity. Quotes are delayed at least 15 minutes. All information provided "as is" for informational purposes only, not intended for trading purposes or advice. Neither Yahoo! nor any of independent providers is liable for any informational errors, incompleteness, or delays, or for any actions taken in reliance on information contained herein. By accessing the Yahoo! site, you agree not to redistribute the information found therein.